We’re always striving to create new work that we’ve never seen before – some images that exist squarely in reality and others that require a bit more imagination to create and a bit more ingenuity to bring to life. When we’re in the studio concepting and brainstorming, ideas have a tendency to grow and build off of other ideas until everyone has a clear vision of what we’re after, whether it exists in reality or not.

For this new photo that we’re calling The Musician, both the location and the talent were born out of a brainstorming session that got us all a bit carried away, with thoughts and ideas that compounded and forced us to ask the question: “how can we shoot that?”

First and foremost we needed an environment for our photograph. From imagination to the internet and eventually to reality, we whittled down the list of possible locations from a worldwide search (ruled out – too many frequent flyer miles to travel to Europe on short notice) and eventually discovered a violin shop in the tri-state area that contained all of the pieces of what we were looking for.

Were those pieces necessarily lined up and constructed in the way that they needed to be for our concept to come to life? Not so much. But we knew that the reality of the space was merely a detail that we could overcome with a touch of creative retouching and post-work.

So we shot, and shot and shot, capturing as many angles and vantages on the violin shop as we could, knowing that the final space would be created as a composite of these pieces.

As for the character, we knew we wanted someone who would look eccentric and eclectic, someone who could match with and amplify the background we’d created. Simply enough, our casting call only asked for “unique looking” males and we let the magic of the search provide what it could. After sifting through a few pages of results, we knew immediately who our talent would be when we saw Geoff Lee – an actor and musician based in New York. Geoff was on-board and with the help of our talented prop and wardrobe stylists set to work creating his character.

In the end it all came together seamlessly, a space and character born out of imagination and brought to life through our vision. As always, we can say that the sum is greater than the whole of it’s parts, but those parts deserve a thank you. Many thanks to our talented model Geoff, Matthew Englebert on props, Wendy Oswald Kinney for wardrobe help, Megan Ambroch for makeup styling, and of course the talented folks at PXL House for bringing it all together in post.

It’s that time of year again – time to take a moment and look forward at what opportunities and adventures await us in the coming weeks and months. Time to discuss and refine our team’s goals and ideals for the next 365 days, time to ask ourselves “what can we do differently, what can we do better this year? what can we create that will be new and different? How can we refine our craft?” Both practical and creative, we love to ask these questions and take even greater joy in answering them by creating new and inspiring images.

So what’s the plan for 2016? Isn’t it obvious?

Make new work. Make photographs and images that we’ve never seen before and create content that can embody our aesthetic and the ideas and vision of our clients. And as always, we’ll do our best to share.

We may have a few less blog posts to show for it than usual, but 2015 has been a year with just as many days on set and on the road as the past few before it. With any shoot there comes those wonderfully awkward test shots and cringe-worthy behind the scenes shots. Since it’s the end of the year, what better time and place to share them all here on the blog:

And there we have it – 2015 is all wrapped up. We’ll be taking New Years off, then getting back into the swing of things early in 2016. We hope you’re as excited as we are for what the new years has in store – happy holidays all!

It may not feel like the end of December on the east coast, but as our team is wrapping up for 2015, we felt it was necessary to take a few minutes and reflect back on this year. We’ve been coast-to-coast and plenty of places in between; after countless traveling, producing, shooting, and retouching the year is finally winding down – and what a great one it has been. Keeping up with our yearly blog tradition, Chris and our team sat down and chose our favorites from 2015. Enjoy!

As always, none of the images above would be what they are without those who have helped us create them. From our amazing clients and the awesome creatives we’ve worked with from all of the country and the world to the dedicated and resourceful crew who have helped produce, style, prop, dress, and light these shoots – and we can’t forget our subjects, the real people, the talented models, and everyone else in between who we capture with our lens: Thank you, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Some images come together quickly while others take their time, changing and developing over weeks and months to be fully realized. Our hot air balloon photo definitely falls into the latter category; a photo that has been on Chris’s mind for quite some time and one that the team has been actively chasing since January of this year.

As with many great (or terrible) stories, this one starts in Las Vegas. In January of this year, we decided to finally pursue bringing Chris’s vision for a dynamic hot air balloon portrait to life – after some research and a few phone calls, we were booked for the weekend with special aerial access at a small hot air balloon festival in Mesquite NV, only a few hours north of Las Vegas. As far as we were concerned, this was our chance to shoot a sky full of balloons – the perfect background for this photo.

That weekend in Mesquite, our team learned a lot about the world of hot air ballooning. We learned tons of information on balloons, safety regulations, wind and weather patterns, proper chasing techniques – the list of ballooning lingo goes on.

Unfortunately, despite all this newfound knowledge, one thing we most definitely did not do though, was fly in a hot air balloon. After two mornings of 5:00am call times in the middle of the desert, we left Nevada empty handed due to high winds and unsafe flying conditions; it was a bust (despite and voodoo or magical efforts Chris may be making in the photo above… the wind was just not on our side).

Did we give up? Of course not. As soon as we landed back in Philadelphia, we were on the search for the next balloon festival we could line up.

In the meantime, we were also searching for a truly amazing landscape to serve as the backdrop for this photo. We knew the perspective needed to be shot from the sky, so what did we do? Made sure we were carrying our cameras with us on almost every flight. It just so happened that a seaplane flight in Alaska provided the appropriately epic landscape we were looking for

Finally in August we set our sights on a huge festival in New Jersey – flying up with dozens of balloons and shooting the whole time, we captured hundreds of photos from all angles. After discussing and sketching and planning the image for months, we all had a pretty good idea of the pieces we needed to shoot, but once the balloons all took off, it was honestly a bit of a free-for-all to shoot as much as we could. We’ve learned that hot air balloons are not exactly the most predictable type of vehicle.

Last but not least, all we needed were our models, and of course another hot air balloon to shoot them in. Surprisingly enough, this may have been the easiest part of the photo. We worked with Carter County Flights, a small family owned company local to Philadelphia to help us achieve the final piece to this photographic puzzle. All that was left to find two great models, dress them and shoot a few photos.

It may have taken almost a year to come together, but we’re so happy with this image – it’s not always applicable, but in this case the final product is truly greater than the sum of its parts.

When it’s all said and done, we owe a big thank you to everyone who helped bring this image to life: The fine folks at the Casablanca Resort in Mesquite NV, everyone at the NJ Festival of Ballooning, the various members of our team who traveled, assisted, or helped shoot parts of this image, and of course our very talented models from Reinhard Philadelphia. Thanks all!

Super excited to share a brand new redesign on Crismanphoto.com as well as a handful of new images this week! We’ve been busy these past few months in between commissioned projects, making time to shoot new personal work. From farmers and shop workers to eccentric musicians, we’ve been producing, casting, and shooting a whole host of new characters for the portfolio.

Make sure to take a few minutes and check out our freshly redesigned website. We’ve reworked the galleries and design to focus on what really matters, the photographs. And there are plenty of them – we’ve added all of Chris’s new personal work as well as new commissioned a handful of new commissioned images.

Going hand-in-hand with this update is a 2015 refresh on our logo. Seeking inspiration from our home state of Pennsylvania (the keystone state, get it?) we collaborated with our friend and art director Rob Story to revamp the Chris’s logo.

Chances are you’ll be seeing it around a lot in the coming months – maybe even embroidered on some hats and tee-shirts. Any takers? Let us know your thoughts below or @crismanphoto and /crismanphoto!

It’s that time of year again when we can step back from the hustle of our daily routine and reflect for a moment on the past eleven months. The holidays always bring some time for relaxation and reflection, but in my opinion there’s none better than Thanksgiving to really stop and take stock of what one is thankful for.

This year, the team decided to all sit down for a minute this morning and share what 2015 has provided and what that means for us (and we included pictures!) So here we are, what the Crisman team is thankful for:

[Chris]: I am thankful for having the opportunity for such great experiences with what we do – for really wonderful clients that entrust me and our team with such great responsibility. I’m also thankful for my amazing wife and her patience for the unpredictable lifestyle that we live. Lastly, I am thankful for the holiday miracle that we found out our cat Cheese, who was lost for two years has just resurfaced in Rhode Island. Even better news is that Cheese will be rejoining our family on Monday.

[Jared]: I am thankful for my motorcycle, pizza and candy, the greatest friends in the world, and most importantly the opportunity to do what I love with the absolute best people. I wouldn’t be nearly as successful as I am without the support of Chris and Robert. I’m truly thankful to be a part of this team.

[Robert]: I have quite a bit to be thankful for this year. Without sounding like a broken record from years past, I am still and will always be truly thankful for all of the unique, interesting and amazing people that I am privileged to work with – from NYC to LA and everywhere/everyone in between, thank you for being a part of my life and helping our team achieve what we do. I am also very thankful in 2015 for my (recently official) wife and other half, Jillian.

That said, we’re all wishing you a very happy thanksgiving! Eat, drink, enjoy leftovers and be merry!